Sunday

Just a few lines today. Looks like a Top Ten day here weather-wise.

I almost made it for the second half. By the final score, which I saw on the news this morning, I didn't miss much. Long day/night in Ames and Happy Valley for the other fans. And for Junior.

Let's talk garage sales. Is this a uniquely USA phenomena? My next-door neighbor had a big sale over the standard Thursday-Friday-Saturday schedule and the traffic was amazing. It was actually for their church, and they had a lot of stuff, but it was a steady stream of visitors yesterday, late into the afternoon. The neighbor said that they took in over $1000 on Friday alone!

One of the things that is happening is that there's a bit of an underground business of re-selling garage-sale purchases on the Internet. I suppose that this is a concept related to my entry here last week about the gal who bought Venetian glass on the Internet. One person's throw-away is another's treasure. Actually, I can see where a treasure-hunter might scout these sales to find a piece or two of glassware or other collectible to finish off a set.

This could also be a left-handed example of the US economy becoming a service economy. You have people buying and re-selling goods as opposed to making stuff. At the lower end of the curve, the goods in question are not likely collectible stuff, but simply serviceable items that are of use to a discerning (or not?) Internet buyer. Further up the continuum, I'm sure that you get into the higher value items that would make the descendants of the Biblical money-changers proud.

One of the speakers at our sales conference in KC last month told the story of a 20-Something whom she had met on a plane who had parlayed his Dad's collection and his own interest in baseball cards to a million-dollar enterprise on the Internet. Buying and selling. Knowing the market. Being able to ferret out truth.

The whole business in transactions involving used property, from glassware, to cars, to art work, is that there is always the element of the deal that plays on human nature. For both the buyer and the seller. A discount from new to the buyer. A premium on the flip to the seller. I learned in the auction that we held on the farm following Daddy's death that, at such an event, people will buy anything and everything. An auction is obviously slightly different than a garage sale, but as the saying goes, "Put a few things of little or no value (to you) in a box, and someone will buy it."

There are also some social angles to be examined (not here) that evolve in different segments of this dynamic. From the church ladies or neighborhood friends that organize and operate a sale, to the legions who make garage-sales must-see activities, and to the Internet players who get to know one-another only by their cryptic user names. I'm sure that there even must be an Internet dating service organized for the garage sale network.

And speaking of network, how many cable channels are there for shopping? Even mainstream channels have many infomercials on late nights and weekends. Have I got a deal for you! Bring it on, Monte Hall and Bob Barker. There's this bridge in Brooklyn...

So anyway, looks like a great day out there. Make it happen for you!

Be careful out there.